Elastomeric sling operated spear gun



July 26, 1966 D. L. SENNE 3,262,441

ELASTOMERIC SLING OPERATED SPEAR GUN Filed Aug. '7, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. 04 W0 1.. .5A//\/ A 7TOE/VEX July 26, 1966 D. L. SENNE 3,

ELASTOMERIC SLING OPERATED SPEAR GUN Filed Aug. 7, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. DAV/D L. SEA/NE A TmEA/EX United States Patent 3,262,441 ELASTUMERIC SLING OPERATED SPEAR GUN David L. Senne, La Habra, Calif., assignor to W. J. Voit Rubber Corp, a corporation of California Filed Aug. 7, 1964, Ser. No. 388,062

4 Claims. (Cl. 12422) This invention relates to spear guns which are used by spear fishermen and scuba divers and more particularly to the improvement in the mounting of a sling assembly.

It is an object of this invention to provide a sling. assembly in which rubber slings are fastened to a muzzle by means of two wing enclosures with the rubber slings and the wing enclosures being so maintained on the muzzle that they exert a pull on a spear shaft substantially along the latitudinal axis of the spear shaft.

It is an additional object of this invention to provide a sling assembly in which rubber slings are attached in a positive manner to the muzzle of the spear gun so that they are retained continuously in proper position with respect to the muzzle while they are in a taut, or stretched, position, also when the slings are in a released condition and also at the moment when the rubber slings fly forward of the sling gun end of the muzzle at the time of their actual release and operation.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will appear from the description of the two embodiments of the invention, the novel features being particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a longitudinal side view of a spear gun;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged plan View of the muzzle portion of the gun, of the wing enclosures and three rubber slings used for operating the gun;

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the muzzle taken in the direction of arrows 33, illustrated in FIGURE 1, with the rubber slings being omitted in FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 4 is a side view, partly in section, of the muzzle and of one rubber sling attached to the muzzle with the aid of two wings and a notch area, or a sling hook, provided in the muzzle;

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of an additional version of a muzzle and of two wings used for properly positioning the rubber slings on the muzzle;

FIGURE 6' is an end view, in the direction of arrows 6-6, illustrated in FIGURE 5, of the muzzle shown in FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 is a side view of the muzzle, of a portion of a spear shaft and of a portion of one rubber sling threaded through the wings of the muzzle shown in dot-dash lines, while the remaining two rubber slings are cut.

Referring to FIGURE 1, the spear gun includes a grip assembly 10, a barrel extension 11, a rubber crutch tip 12, a barrel 13 fastened to a grip assembly by means of a set screw 14, a muzzle 15 fastened to barrel 13 by means of two set screws 16, three rubber slings 17, 18 and 19 held in proper position with respect to muzzle 15 by means of two wings 20 and 21, a spear shaft 22, a line 23 attached to the spear shaft 22 by means of a slide ring 24, and a spearhead 25 mounted at the outer end of the spear shaft 22. The line assembly 23 also includes a shock absorber 26, which is a piece of rubber tube or round rubber cord. One end of the rubber tube 26 is attached to muzzle 15 with the aid of an orifice 28 and a string 27 while the other end of shock absorber 26 is attached to a string, or line, 23. A plurality of turns of string 23 are wound around a swinging hook 29 and a hook 30 so as to provide several lengths of string 23 for attaching spear shaft 22 to the gun after it is discharged from the gun. For this purpose, the outer end 3,262,441 Patented July 26, 1966 of string 23 is attached to the slide ring 24 which forms a sliding engagement with spear shaft 22. Therefore, when spear shaft 22 becomes discharged from the gun, the spear shaft travels through ring 24 until it strikes a retainer 31 substantially at the end of the spear shaft, whereupon it pulls string 23, along with the spear shaft 22, with the result that the only connection that remains between the gun and the spear shaft, after discharge of the spear shaft, is line 23. Line 23 is then used for retrieving the spear shaft and a quarry if any, with the aid of line 23.

In the gun of this type it is important that .the force exerted by the rubber slings 17, 18 and 19 on the spear shaft 22 has the direction parallel to the latitudinal axis of the spear shaft. Also, it is important that the rubber slings 17-19 are positively and properly attached to muzzle 15 so that they retain their desired position with respect to muzzle 15 after the gun has been discharged at which time the rubber slings travel very swiftly forward, and, because of the inertial and velocity imparted to the rubber slings, they travel beyond the muzzle of the gun and bend over. rubber slings, and lack of any proper positive attachment of the rubber slings to the muzzle, produced a disarray of the slings with the result that the user of the gun had to spend a considerable amount of time rearranging the slings back to their proper position for the next shot. In order to avoid such malfunctioning of the rubber sling, and, also, in order to position the rubber slings precisely in that position which would impart, or apply, a substantially axial force to the spear shaft 22, the gun now is provided with two wings, or wing enclosures, 20 and 21 on each side of the muzzle. The wings 20 and 21 define two curvilinear channels for receiving the slings and holding the free ends of the slings in a fixed position with respect to the muzzle and in a plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the spear shaft 22 and of the orifice 51 extending through the upper portion of the muzzle and bisecting the straight portions of two channels. In this manner, the direction of force exerted by the slings on the spear shaft is along the longitudinal axis 36 of the spear shaft.' The upper wing 20 has a bent-down forward portion 32 and the lower wing 21 has a downwardly curved front and upper surface 33, with the result that the channel defined by the wings- 20 anl 21 has a curved longitudinal axis 34 to conform to the curved path followed by the slings from book 37 to the downstream end of the channels defined by the wings 20 and 21. This curved construction of the channel prevents the slings from leaving the muzzle, especially in view of the fact that this channel is restricted at 45, or its forward part. In this manner the round sling cords 17, 18 and 19 are retained in a positive manner by the wings 20 and. 21 and they do not change their position with respect to the wings 20 and 21 and the hook portion 37 of the muzzle which is produced by the projecting muzzle end 38 and the projecting tip 39 of the muzzle. It is this hook that is used for looping the rubber slings around the muzzle 15.

In view of the above construction, when the rubber slings become released upon firing of the gun, they may assume a forward position 40, illustrated by dotted lines in FIGURE 1, but, because of the elasticity of these rubber slings, they then return to the position illustrated in FIGURE 1 in full lines, whereupon they can be used again for stretching and hooking them to the notches 42, 43 or 44, provided for this purpose on the spear shaft 22. In this manner, the usually present disarray of the rubber slings is avoided.

The position of the wings 21 with respect to the longitudinal axis 36 is such that the longitudinal axis 36 bi- In the prior art, such release of sects the straight portion of the channel defined by wings 20 and 21 as illustrated in FIGURE 4, with the result that the latitudinal axis 36 of the spear shaft 22, the longitudinal axis of the rubber slings, and the longitudinal axis of the straight portion of the channel defined by the wings 20 and 21 is one single axis 36. Therefore, when wire loops 45, 46 and 47, attached to the ends of the rubber slings 17, 18 and 19, are hooked to the notches 42, 43 and 44 of the spear shaft 22, they exert an axially directed force on the spear shaft 22. The result is that the spear shaft travels along the longitudinal axis 36 and also along a line parallel to the longitudinal axis 50 of the gun. The accuracy of the gun is thus improved over the guns of the prior art because in the prior art guns, the rubber bands are not aligned with the longitudinal axis of the separ shaft in their stretched position.

FIGURES 5, 6 and 7 disclose a similar structure of the gun muzzle which also includes wings 500 and 501. The wings 500 and 501 produce the same results as the results produced by the wings 20 and 21 in FIGURE 1. The only difference that exists between a muzzle 503 and muzzle 15 is in the slightly different configuration imparted to the two wings 500 and 501 and the introduction of an inclined slot 700 at the lower front portion of the muzzle. This slot is used for hooking the three rubber slings 17, 18 and 19 to the muzzle.

What I claim as new is:

1. A spear gun comprising a grip assembly, a barrel attached to said grip assembly, a muzzle attached to the outer end of the barrel, an orifice in said muzzle for positioning a spear shaft in parallel relation to said barrel said muzzle having two wings projecting outwardly on both sides of said muzzle, said wings being spaced from each other and defining two channels therebetween with one channel being on one side and the other channel being on the other side of said muzzle, said channels having a downwardly inclined front portion and a straight rear portion, and at least one rubber sling hooked onto said muzzle and passing through said channels, said wings holding those portions of the rubber sling adjacent to said wings in positive engagement with respect to said muzzle, the longitudinal axes of said orifice and of said rear portions of said channels lying in a common plane whereby said sling is aligned with the longitudinal axis of said spear shaft when said sling is hooked onto the inner end of said spear shaft.

2. A muzzle for a spear gun operated by elastomeric slings, said muzzle having a lower half and an upper half, said lower half having means for attaching said muzzle to a barrel of said gun, said upper half having an orifice having a longitudinal axis, a sling hook at the front portion of said muzzle for booking said slings around said muzzle and a pair of wings on each side of said muzzle defining two channels for receiving said slings and holding the free ends of said slings in fixed position with respect to said muzzle in a plane passing through the longitudinal axis of said orifice and through the central portion of said channels.

3. A spear gun comprising a barrel, a muzzle attached to the outer end of said barrel, first and second pair of wings projecting outwardly from the respective sides of said muzzle, each pair of, said wings defining a curved channel, said channel having a downwardly inclined front portion and a straight rear portion, and an orifice in said muzzle for accommodating a spear rod, said orifice and the rear portions of said first and second channels having three longitudinal axes lying in a single, common plane parallel to the longitudinal axis of said barrel.

4. A muzzle for a spear gun, said muzzle including an orifice extending longitudinally through the length of the upper portion of said muzzle for holding a spear shaft in sliding engagement with respect to said muzzle, a pair of wings on each side of said muzzle, each pair defining a sling channel having a forwardly and downwardly inclined front portion and a substantially straight rear portion, a sling hook at the front portion of said muzzle for engaging slings, said channels being disposed above said hook and receiving said slings therethrough, said rear portions having longitudinal axes disposed on a level with the longtiudinal axis of said orifice to position said Slings with respect to said muzzle in a plane passing through the longitudinal axes of said rear portions of the channels and the longitudinal axis of said orifice.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,108,583 10/1963 Andis 124-20 X FOREIGN PATENTS 157,206 6/1954 Australia.

RICHARD C. 'PINKHAM, Primary Examiner.

W. R. BROWNE, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A SPEAR GUN COMPRISING A GRIP ASSEMBLY, A BARREL ATTACHED TO SAID GRIP ASSEMBLY, A MUZZLE ATTACHED TO THE OUTER END OF THE BARREL, AN ORIFICE IN SAID MUZZLE FOR POSITIONING A SPEAR SHAFT IN PARALLEL RELATION TO SAID BARREL SAID MUZZLE HAVING TWO WINGS PROJECTING OUTWARDLY ON BOTH SIDES OF SAID MUZZLE, SAID WINGS BEING SPACED FROM EACH OTHER AND DEFINING TWO CHANNELS THEREBETWEEN WITH ONE CHANNEL BEING ON ONE SIDE AND THE OTHER CHANNEL BEING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF SAID MUZZLE, SAID CHANNELS HAVING A DOWNWARDLY INCLINED FRONT PORTION AND A STRAIGHT REAR PORTION, AND AT LEAST ONE RUBBER SLING HOOKED ONTO SAID MUZZLE AND PASSING THROUGH SAID CHANNELS, SAID WINGS HOLDING THOSE PORTIONS OF THE RUBBER SLING ADJACENT TO 